Is TTMI A Good Stock To Buy Now According To Hedge Funds?

At Insider Monkey, we pore over the filings of nearly 817 top investment firms every quarter, a process we have now completed for the latest reporting period. The data we’ve gathered as a result gives us access to a wealth of collective knowledge based on these firms’ portfolio holdings as of September 30. In this article, we will use that wealth of knowledge to determine whether or not TTM Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:TTMI) makes for a good investment right now.

Is TTMI a good stock to buy now? TTM Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:TTMI) investors should be aware of an increase in hedge fund sentiment lately. TTM Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:TTMI) was in 20 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of September. The all time high for this statistic is 22. Our calculations also showed that TTMI isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q3 rankings and see the video for a quick look at the top 5 stocks).

Video: Watch our video about the top 5 most popular hedge fund stocks.

At the moment there are a large number of gauges stock traders employ to analyze publicly traded companies. A pair of the most under-the-radar gauges are hedge fund and insider trading indicators. Our experts have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the best hedge fund managers can trounce their index-focused peers by a solid amount (see the details here).

At Insider Monkey we scour multiple sources to uncover the next great investment idea. For example, Federal Reserve has been creating trillions of dollars electronically to keep the interest rates near zero. We believe this will lead to inflation and boost real estate prices. So, we recommended this real estate stock to our monthly premium newsletter subscribers. We go through lists like the 15 best blue chip stocks to pick the best large-cap stocks to buy. Even though we recommend positions in only a tiny fraction of the companies we analyze, we check out as many stocks as we can. We read hedge fund investor letters and listen to stock pitches at hedge fund conferences. You can subscribe to our free daily newsletter on our website. With all of this in mind let’s check out the key hedge fund action regarding TTM Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:TTMI).

Do Hedge Funds Think TTMI Is A Good Stock To Buy Now?

At the end of the third quarter, a total of 20 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long this stock, a change of 11% from the second quarter of 2020. By comparison, 12 hedge funds held shares or bullish call options in TTMI a year ago. With hedgies’ capital changing hands, there exists an “upper tier” of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were increasing their holdings significantly (or already accumulated large positions).

Among these funds, Point72 Asset Management held the most valuable stake in TTM Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:TTMI), which was worth $34.3 million at the end of the third quarter. On the second spot was Rubric Capital Management which amassed $28.7 million worth of shares. LMR Partners, Divisar Capital, and Royce & Associates were also very fond of the stock, becoming one of the largest hedge fund holders of the company. In terms of the portfolio weights assigned to each position Divisar Capital allocated the biggest weight to TTM Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:TTMI), around 4.95% of its 13F portfolio. Rubric Capital Management is also relatively very bullish on the stock, earmarking 2.68 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to TTMI.

Now, specific money managers were breaking ground themselves. Rubric Capital Management, managed by David Rosen, created the most valuable position in TTM Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:TTMI). Rubric Capital Management had $28.7 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Paul Marshall and Ian Wace’s Marshall Wace LLP also initiated a $5.1 million position during the quarter. The other funds with brand new TTMI positions are Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group, Gavin Saitowitz and Cisco J. del Valle’s Prelude Capital (previously Springbok Capital), and Donald Sussman’s Paloma Partners.

Let’s also examine hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as TTM Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:TTMI) but similarly valued. These stocks are Luminex Corporation (NASDAQ:LMNX), COMPASS Pathways Plc (NASDAQ:CMPS), MFA Financial, Inc. (NYSE:MFA), The St. Joe Company (NYSE:JOE), Epizyme Inc (NASDAQ:EPZM), TechTarget Inc (NASDAQ:TTGT), and Encore Capital Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:ECPG). This group of stocks’ market valuations are similar to TTMI’s market valuation.

View table here if you experience formatting issues.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 19.3 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $207 million. That figure was $124 million in TTMI’s case. Luminex Corporation (NASDAQ:LMNX) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand TechTarget Inc (NASDAQ:TTGT) is the least popular one with only 14 bullish hedge fund positions. TTM Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:TTMI) is not the most popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still above average. Our overall hedge fund sentiment score for TTMI is 54.3. Stocks with higher number of hedge fund positions relative to other stocks as well as relative to their historical range receive a higher sentiment score. Our calculations showed that top 20 most popular stocks among hedge funds returned 41.3% in 2019 and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by 10 percentage points. These stocks gained 30.7% in 2020 through December 14th and still beat the market by 15.8 percentage points. Hedge funds were also right about betting on TTMI as the stock returned 16.5% since the end of Q3 (through 12/14) and outperformed the market. Hedge funds were rewarded for their relative bullishness.

Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.